Day 57: Friday, June 2

Today we started off the morning at the Archaeological Museum of Nafplion where we got to see some of the coolest (and earliest) artifacts in Greece. The museum featured finds from the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods of prehistory. That’s super old!

The museum also had the best example of a full Mycenaean suit of armor. It looked heavy and cumbersome, but it would probably prevent someone from killing you with a bronze weapon. The armor looked so difficult to move around in that archeologists suspect the suit’s owner drove a chariot and did not actually engage in hand-to-hand combat. I feel bad for the horses lugging that tinman around.

After the museum, we had the option of going to the Nafplio Folklore Museum or going to get some mid-morning espresso freddos (iced coffees). The folklore museum had beautiful displays showing traditional Greek garb and arranged example layouts of historical Greek rooms with antique furniture and the like.

After the folklore museum/coffee shop, we met up at the Center for Hellenic Studies, a Harvard University extension here in Nafplio. We received a tour of the building and we learned what resources would be available to us this week. We are very grateful for the CHS, as they have an awesome digital library and amazing WiFi speed for Greece. CHS will certainly make writing our papers easier.

After our tour, we broke for lunch, and then went back to the CHS to get cracking on our papers. They’re due a week from tomorrow.